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Ross Colton’s new deal is why the Tampa Bay Lightning traded him

By Benjamin Henderson

TAMPA, FLORIDA - JULY 07: Ross Colton #79 of the Tampa Bay Lightning celebrates with the Stanley Cup following the victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the Amalie Arena on July 07, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. The Lightning defeated the Canadiens 1-0 to take the series four games to one. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FLORIDA - JULY 07: Ross Colton #79 of the Tampa Bay Lightning celebrates with the Stanley Cup following the victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the Amalie Arena on July 07, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. The Lightning defeated the Canadiens 1-0 to take the series four games to one. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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As the offseason approached, word started to leak out that the Tampa Bay Lightning wouldn’t retain Ross Colton. It wasn’t a critique of him being a bad player; it was a reality of him commanding more money than Tampa would want to pay.

It seemed like every time someone brought up the Lightning probably wouldn’t keep Colton, the online reaction was visceral and toxic.

But now that Colton has been traded to the Colorado Avalanche and officially signed a new deal with them, it’s a reminder that Tampa was never in a position to keep Colton around, given their salary cap realities.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Ross the Boss came at a cost

Colton was traded to Colorado in exchange for the 37th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Even though Colton was a restricted free agent and Tampa held leverage over him, the money was simply too great for Tampa to maintain that leverage.

Colton signed a deal for four years at $4 million a year. 

The Bolts were never going to match that number and it is a fairly big gamble from Colorado to sign him at the number.

Colton had 16 goals and 32 points last season playing in the bottom six, which were very solid numbers for a guy making $1,125,000 a year.

He must step up big time to justify the pay increase and not be a liability for Colorado.

Of the eight forwards that will be making exactly $4 million in 2023-24, Colton had the second-fewest points per game in 2022-23, beating out only Corey Perry.

To be fair, he is also only one of four forwards in that group to play the full season, and when looking at total points, he is fifth out of eight.

But Tampa simply couldn’t take the gamble that he was going to take that step, and even if they thought he could get north of 20 goals if given top-six minutes, they had to prioritize Tanner Jeannot for better or for worse and have to keep money available to sign Brandon Hagel next offseason.

Ross Colton was a productive player for the Tampa Bay Lightning. But business is business, and in the end, he simply cost too much money to stay.

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